The international community “shines in absence” when it comes to combating the cultivation of coca, the base ingredient for cocaine, in Colombia, the International Crisis Group (ICG) said Thursday.
Coca has fueled armed conflict in the South American country since the late 1970s and has become one of the main obstacles in an ongoing peace process with the FARC, until last year the country’s largest rebel group.
While in particular the United States has pressed Colombia to curb cocaine production, the international community “shines in absence” when it comes to helping the South American country’s counter narcotics efforts.
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The administration of President Juan Manuel Santos has prioritized rural development and crop substitution to curb coca cultivation with the support of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Government and UN officials have been trying to convince coca growers to take part in this program for almost a year, but have fallen behind in delivering on made promises.
This is because the program has received no financial support from cocaine consumer countries and is short of money, according to the ICG.
The government estimates that 170,000 families could sign substitution agreements, which would mean disbursing about $2 billion over two years. Very little of that money is available in current budgets. The international community has also not provided financial support, either because it does not consider it a priority, or because of legal restrictions on the delivery of money to farmers who still own coca, or because of concern that resources may end up in the hands of the FARC.
International Crisis Group
The ICG rejected the US-supported forced eradication of coca, claiming it could strengthen illegal armed groups politically as it would corroborate their anti-government rhetoric in rural communities that have long suffered state neglect and abandonment.
Coca eradication in areas controlled by armed groups could strengthen them politically. Forcible elimination could corroborate their anti-government speech, encouraging coca growers to seek their protection.
International Crisis Group
In the central Colombian provinces of Meta and Guaviare, coca farmers said they have already sought the protection of guerrilla groups that sprung from the FARC’s demobilization and are actively trying to maintain control over their former group’s drug trafficking activities.
Like the UN and international human rights organizations, the ICG supports the Colombian government’s strategy to combat coca cultivation through development projects in neglected area and subsidies for farmers who want to substitute their crops.
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For this work, however, the Colombian government will need to adopt a long-term development model and the international community must stand behind the program.
The voluntary substitution of coca crops, one of the flagship programs of the agreement, will require a long-term commitment from the state, and much greater international political and financial support.
International Crisis Group
A failure to make the counter-narcotics strategy work would reduce the chances of peace in Colombia and become a missed opportunity to effectively reduce cocaine trafficking more than three decades after the beginning of the war on drugs.
Santos called this US-led war on drugs “possibly more harmful than all other wars combined” when retrieving his Nobel peace prize last year.
